West Ham United: Daniel Kretinsky should be livid at London Stadium snub from Euro 2028 shortlist
West Ham United were dealt a blow on Wednesday (12 April) as the London Stadium wasn’t selected as one of the UK’s and Ireland’s stadiums for their bid to host Euro 2028.
Ten stadiums have been chosen from across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland to be a part of the bid, but the Hammers faced a frustrating snub as the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was preferred as one of London’s two choices alongside Wembley.
Despite having previous experience hosting the 2012 Olympics and being able to hold a capacity of 66,000 people, the London Stadium was left out of the list.
Other stadiums that featured on the list included Everton’s new Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium, Villa Park and Newcastle’s home ground, St James’ Park.
No reason has of yet been given for the London Stadium’s snub, but David Sullivan, and in particular Daniel Kretinsky, will be livid that their rivals from across the city managed to get on the bill ahead of West Ham.
Currently, the Hammers pay a £3.6million-a-year lease to use the ground, but The Times (28 March) reported that Kretinsky would be “open to” buying the ground as West Ham owner.
The Czech billionaire currently owns 27% of the Hammers’ shares but is reportedly open to completing a full takeover.
If Kretinsky were to take charge of West Ham United football club in the coming years and complete the full purchase of the London Stadium, this omission from the Euro 2028 shortlist could be a costly one.
Hosting such an event is always a brilliant opportunity to generate large amounts of income through advertisement, ticket sales and exposure of the club, so missing out could be an expensive loss in the long run.
Although the UK and Ireland haven’t yet been awarded the hosting rights for Euro 2028, Daniel Levy is likely to be smiling at the thought of getting one over on his local rivals from the capital.